ibiera Status Credit Accrual on Qantas?

[kangarooflyer88]

Well folks, this Kangaroo will soon be making the hop over to Europe to do a post-doc. At present I am 240 status credits short of retaining my Qantas Gold status (having already gotten the 4 tickets needed to renew QF Gold status) with my program year ending on November 30. It looks like there are no decent OneWorld options from where I am presently based (Ontario) to Europe. However, there is plenty of United award space in business to Europe meaning Virgin Australia points are an obvious go to for this move.

Looking around at flights intra-Europe, I see that Iberia offers some decent business class fares that could nearly get me to this magical number (i.e. Frankfurt to Lisbon or Madrid connecting in Iberia should at least in theory net me 100 status credits each way: 60 between Frankfurt and Madrid and a further 40 between Lisbon and Madrid). However, I have never flown Iberia before and am curious if someone could offer guidance on booking the flights to ensure I receive full status credit accrual. For instance, how do I determine from the Iberia website what fare code my business ticket books into (this is needed to validate I'll be earning at the business rate)? Additionally, on some flights I see it carries an IB flight number but is operated by Air Nostrum. Would that earn status credits since technically it's an affiliate OneWorld member?

More broadly does anyone have recommendations of some good status credit runs to do in Europe?

Oh and in case anyone is wondering, I'm planning to return to Australia sometime in late 2025 or early 2026 for graduation, so that sorts out the 4 ticks required to keep Qantas status next year.

-RooFlyer88

 

[SYD]

Generally “J” fares (and sub Biz fares) will earn as per the QF earn tables for all OW partners in and around Europe (BA, IB, AY, AT, also RJ and WY* if you like some extra excitement).

*Oman Air from 01 July

It’s normally only the discount whY fares that don’t earn with QF. eg BA “Lite” whY. The whY fares that include checked bag will earn.

IB has some wide body Euro sectors (as do AY).

I’d play around with ITA Matrix or Google Flights to see what J bargains are around and from what ports you can readily get to take them.